A Kensington residential facet avenue comprises a home so amazingly Victorian {that a} TV costume drama would assume it’s a bit excessive. It’s additionally open to the general public to go to.
That is 18 Stafford Terrace, previously house to the Punch journal’s illustrator Edward Linley Sambourne, from a time when being a cartoonist for {a magazine} paid nicely sufficient to purchase an honest middle-class home.
Linley Sambourne died in 1910, and happily, their son retained the inside untouched. When he died, his sister already owned a home and left it empty till her daughter, Anne, Countess of Rosse — granddaughter of Linley Sambourne — fell in love with it and Victoriana generally, founding the Victorian Society. She offered the home to to the GLC be conserved as a museum managed by the Victorian Society in 1980.
For some many years, visits have been by guided excursions solely.
Nevertheless, not too long ago, the basement kitchens have been transformed right into a normal reception space, and in 2022, the home reopened to the general public to wander in each time and wander round as you please.
So, down some steps to the basement and right into a musty-smelling area the place the workers work, and when you’ve paid, you’re free to wander round. A video subsequent door tells the historical past of the home and household, but it surely’s whenever you get upstairs that the attention popping begins.
It’s exceptionally richly embellished.
Victorian households cherished to muddle their properties with as many objects as potential, the possession of objects being an indication of wealth. The Sambourne household was wealthy sufficient to purchase so much, however happily, they have been additionally arty, in order that they fell for the Aesthetic fashion and embellished their home extra as a residing artwork assortment.
The home has been retained in look as if the household has simply stepped out for a second, so the tables are laid for dinner, books are able to be learn on facet tables, and the tender trendy lighting displays the looks of the time.
The home initially had gasoline, and in case you look rigorously, the ceiling roses nonetheless embrace the slots that may carry gases away. The warmth of the gasoline lamps additionally created a mild venting draft within the room.
In a means, the rooms are so overwhelming that it describing the whole lot on present would fill a number of books. Not that you simply stand up shut, as many of the rooms have ropes stopping wandering too intently. Which will irk if one thing particular catches your eye, however the rooms work higher whenever you stand again a bit and soak in the entire environment, not strive to select this or that.
In a means, it’s an expertise that’s not not like Dennis Severs Home.
There are, in fact, a number of residing rooms, bedrooms and claustrophobic corridors to discover, lined with the very best William Morris wallpapers and richly patterned carpets. One slim bed room, in all probability for one of many kids, virtually felt oppressive with the lengthy slim area full of patterned wallpapers. If you’d like a scene from a horror film, this delivers.
Proper on the prime was his workshop, a big room you’ll be able to look into the place Linley drew his well-paying cartoons and perfected his use of the early digital camera. I used to be advised that on a go to to Paris, folks objected to him taking photographs of them, so he constructed his personal small handheld digital camera to take photographs with out folks noticing.
The wallpaper, product of carved wooden, is simple to overlook even in case you take a look at it. It’s the one room in the home embellished like this, astonishing intimately and craftmanship. And a complete room is roofed in it.
The entire constructing is a feast for the eyes and the guts, and it’s a exceptional survivor of an authentic Victorian home because it was embellished by a person with a modestly first rate earnings.
As a home museum, it’s distinctive.
Sadly, home costs and artist incomes will not be as suitable as of late, so anticipate future generations of museum homes to be extra of a glance across the one room the well-known artist rented in a flatshare with three different folks dumped there by an absent landlord.
However if you wish to go to 18 Stafford Terrace — now formally Sambourne Home, it’s only a few minutes stroll from Excessive Avenue Kensington tube station.
You may go to simply Sambourne Home which is £12 per grownup, or a joint ticket to close by Leighton Home is £22, saving you £4 on the price of visiting each individually.
You may pay on the day, or e book tickets upfront right here.
This text was printed on ianVisits
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